Tanglewood contacted well established Scandinavian luthier and designer Michael Sanden. Michael and his small team had been building acoustics for over 40 years in Simrishamn, a picturesque rural area of Sweden. Michael had quietly been building a reputation across Scandinavia as the foremost, and creatively innovative luthier of his generation.

Michael was asked if he would consider a collaboration with Tanglewood Guitars, and help Tanglewood to bring his elegant designs and craftsmanship to a larger market. Michael recognised the potential of a marriage between Tanglewood, the #1 brand of volume production guitars in the UK & Eire and his own boutique Sanden workshop. The scale Tanglewood could bring to the project, the unique structural and aesthetic features Michael could bring, both felt would add to each others individual brand image and create a collective guitar masterpiece... we hope you agree.

MasterDesign: The Sound

All of the design features you see on your Tanglewood MasterDesign are there for a reason. The unique shape is not simply for looks, it is intimately connected to the instruments sound. The exotic Japanese "brush stroke" bridge design gives the guitar its remarkable balance, the zero fret a more even overall action and a totally fretted sound. And speaking of frets! These guitars feature hemispherical fret ends for a superior feel and refined aesthetic. The veneer on the back of the headstock adds strength, and the dual action truss rod can compensate for any string gauge or climatic change.

Sanden Guitars perform second to none in the studio with crisp well defined clarity and an almost "lets break the laws of physics" level of sustain. Well seasoned quartersawn woods fitted correctly with extra care and the correct glue are the cornerstone of every Sanden Guitar. Long hours of tweaking the perfect bracing options to establish the tonal element for the range that would be significantly MasterDesign; a sound that would blend all the best qualities of a Tanglewood guitar with the best design and structural secrets behind the magic of Sanden.

MasterDesign: The Wood

Each MasterDesign guitar is built from only the very best materials. The top on each guitar is made from the highest grade Spruce, tight-grained, rigid along the length, yet flexible across the grain and when this is married to the unique Sanden bracing pattern, we have the heart of the MasterDesign sound, a sound that matures beautifully over time.

The Indian Kerala Rosewood back and sides are both traditionally quartersawn. The back is graduated by highly skilled craftsmen until it resonates with the top (a fact generally ignored by most guitar makers though it has an incredible impact on overall sound) to breathe, generating superb physical resonance.

The neck is made from two pieces of individually selected top grade Mahogany, which is then laminated together to make an incredibly strong neck. The headstock is also designed for strength with a thick Rosewood veneer on top and in typical Sanden detail, on on the back as well!

The binding on these MasterDesign guitars is of course all natural wood, which gives these instruments a rural elegance. The finish is gossamer thin but durable, enhancing the sound character of the instruments and allowing the wood to breath adding outstanding resonance.

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